Author: Administrator

A double-barrelled, non-surgical treatment could deliver the knock-out punch 🥊🥊 for a rare type of ovarian cancer. Granulosa cell tumours of the ovary have a high rate of recurrence and available treatments are nearly always unsuccessful. Now a combination treatment that tackles the body’s defence mechanisms may prove a game-changer.Read more about Dr Simon Chu’s research 🧐 https://bit.ly/2Fn0jzu

One-two punch could knock out rare ovarian cancer

A double-barrelled, non-surgical method to treat a rare type of ovarian cancer may provide hope for many patients.

Granulosa cell tumours of the ovary are slow growing but have a high rate of recurrence and available treatments are nearly always unsuccessful. Once treated surgically, patients need to be monitored throughout their life and there are no viable treatments.

Now, a potential new treatment may prove a game-changer. One of the difficulties in treating cancer is the body’s own defence mechanisms that naturally blocks many cancer treatments from being effective.

Two recent publications, in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics and in the Journal of Proteome Research, undertaken by Dr Simon Chu and his team, has shown that a combination treatment tackles the problem by reducing the body’s defences with one drug, allowing the second drug to attack the cancer cells. This presents the first major progress in a treatment for ovarian granulosa cell tumours.

Dr Chu said patients are in need of non-surgical options, as these tumours commonly reappear after surgery.

“The need for more novel, targeted therapy cannot be overstated. Our work is focused on understanding what causes granulosa cell tumours so we can find more effective treatments. The exciting finding shows a combination approach could provide a new way to help women with this cancer,” Dr Chu said

Patients with recurrent ovarian cancer who received Zejula (niraparib) maintenance therapy experienced more time without symptoms or toxicity compared with placebo, according to results from the phase 3 ENGOT-OV16/NOVA trial.

“This TWiST (time without symptoms or toxicity) analysis benefit means that patients treated with niraparib experienced more progression-free time without symptoms or toxicities due to nausea, vomiting, or fatigue compared to placebo,” Ursula A. Matulonis, M.D., director and chief of gynecologic oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said during her presentation at the 50th SGO Annual Meeting, held March 16-19 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In the multicenter, double-blind, randomized-controlled trial, patients with recurrent ovarian cancer who were in response to their last platinum-based chemotherapy were randomly assigned to receive either 300 mg of Zejula once daily as a maintenance treatment – including 138 patients in the germline BRCA-mutated cohort and 234 in the non-germline group – or placebo – made up of 65 patients in the germline BRCA-mutated cohort and 116 in the non-germline group.

Saturday 9 February 2019 Lakeview Hotel

Rare Ovarian cancer Incorporated (ROC Inc.) together with the Lakeview Hotel are delighted to announce a fundraising event on the 9th February to raise money for research for a Rare Ovarian cancer called Juvenile Granulosa Cell Tumour (JGCT).

A local child in Oak Flats was diagnosed with just after her 16th Birthday. The youngest case in Australia was diagnosed at 11months old.

This is an incurable disease but through research it can be a curable cancer. Come along and be apart of this fundraising event to raise the money needed to make this research happen.

We want your support and involvement to make this day a big success. The fun begins at 12pm.

No research into this disease, means no answers to move forward for treatments or clinical trials.

Granulosa cell cancers have a recurrent nature that is they come back over a long length time and thus requires a life time of monitoring. The recurrences are generally chemotherapy resistant and tend to be highly aggressive with a poor prognosis. Hence there is a critical need to find ways to treat this disease. That is why research is so vital.
Please join us and be directly involved in helping raise the money needed to find a cure for JGCT and create a brighter future for not only a local child but many other children and women.